The Growth of Phoenix’s High-Tech Jobs

The Phoenix Business Journal published an article on September 1st announcing that Phoenix tied with San Francisco for the best growth in high-tech jobs among major North American markets over the past two years. The report, released by CBRE, detailed that Phoenix added 12,662 new high-tech jobs between 2012 and 2014, a 42.7% increase.

In the past two years, Phoenix added more overall tech jobs than Chicago, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas, and had a higher rate of percentage growth compared to Austin, Silicon Valley, New York and Seattle.

While growth rates were higher in the last two years, San Francisco Bay area, Silicon Valley, Seattle and Dallas still have a significantly larger tech-industry footprint than exists in Phoenix. The good news is, though, that growth is still growth. Additionally, Phoenix’s relatively inexpensive rent (averaging $22 per square foot) is significantly less than other markets such as San Francisco ($68), Seattle ($32), New York ($69), and Silicon Valley ($49), according to CBRE. Lower rent than many of our nearby competitors makes Phoenix an attractive location for regional headquarters, with 23 Fortune 100 companies with a major base of operation in the Phoenix metropolitan area as of 2013.

B3 Strategies is proud to be part of the Phoenix business community, and will continue to watch the growth and development of our emerging technology sector. For additional information, please reach out to Emily Rice at erice@b3strategies.com.